Labour’s love of inherited privilege shows a lack of class

Emily Benn, speaking at Westminster Academy school in London back in 2010 (Photo: EPA)

No wonder there was rejoicing on Labour’s front benches when Michael Gove was shuffled off to the Whips’ Office. The socialist firebrands were clearly worried that if Britain’s schools become any more meritocratic, they might not be able to pass on their own inherited privileges.

You see, it is one of the ironies of contemporary politics that the hereditary principle holds most sway within the Labour Party. How else to explain the news that Emily Benn, granddaughter of Tony, has been selected as its candidate in Croydon South? If she wins, she will be the fifth generation of her family to serve in the House of Commons.

The Wedgwood Benns may be the most long-standing (and aristocratic) of Labour dynasties, but they are far from the only one. Stephen Kinnock, son of former leader Neil and husband of the Danish prime minister, will fight the safe seat of Aberavon in South Wales in 2015. Will Straw, son of Jack, is the candidate in Rossendale and Darwen. Other scions of Labour grandees waiting in the wings are Euan Blair, rumoured to be circling Coventry North West, and Joe Dromey, son of MPs Jack Dromey and Harriet Harman, who is said to be interested in Lewisham Deptford.

In truth, family ties are probably just as important in the Conservative Party – but at least the Tories have the good grace to be embarrassed about it. Hence last week’s reshuffle, in which various middle-aged white men were sacked or demoted. Yet it has always baffled me that the Labour Party, which is supposed to stand up for the little guy, makes such feeble attempts to conceal the power of its own ruling class.

The present leader is a case in point. The son of a famous Marxist professor, he went to the Eton of north London comprehensives and lives in a £2.5 million house in the area. Yet that doesn’t stop him playing the class card at every opportunity, referring to David Cameron’s “Cabinet of millionaires” and advocating a “mansion” tax.

Why isn’t Ed Miliband more troubled by these internal contradictions? The only explanation I can think of is that, historically, Labour hasn’t been punished for not practising what it preaches. The party’s working-class supporters remained loyal, in spite of the fact that its Oxford-educated leaders always sent their children to private schools, dined on oysters and champagne and holidayed in the south of France.

That, presumably, is why Labour’s panjandrums have no qualms about seeing Emily Benn selected to fight Croydon South. If the Hon Tristram Hunt’s title didn’t prevent him from accusing Gove – adopted at the age of four months by an Aberdeen fishmonger – of being an “elitist”, why should Emily Benn’s aristocratic lineage keep her from representing the poor and downtrodden?

Having a title among the Tories, by contrast, is the kiss of death – as the Hon Douglas Hurd discovered when he stood for the leadership in 1990. “This is inverted snobbery,” he declared. “I thought I was running for the leader of the Conservative Party, not some demented Marxist sect.”

As a politically ambitious Hon myself, I often think I would have fared better in the Labour Party, particularly since my father was ennobled by James Callaghan. Like Euan Blair, Stephen Kinnock and Will Straw, I could have been a “red prince”.

Still, thanks to the rise of Ukip, the days when Labour could take its working-class support for granted, regardless of how privileged its leaders were, may be coming to an end. If I were Chris Philp, the state-educated Tory candidate in Croydon South, I’d be quite pleased that my Labour opponent is the Hon Emily Wedgwood Benn, daughter of the third Viscount Stansgate. Perhaps he could even play the class card himself.